The EU Court of Justice rules that allowing London taxis to use bus lanes while prohibiting private hire vehicles from doing so does not constitute State aid (Eventech / Parking Adjudicator)

A criticism of the CJEU’s ruling that allowing London taxis to use bus lanes while prohibiting private hire vehicles from doing so does not appear to involve State aid (Eventech, C-518/13)* In its judgment of 14 January 2015 in Eventech (C-518/13, EU:C:2015:9), the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) ruled on the preliminary question referred by the Court of Appeal (England and Wales) in the Addison Lee “taxis in bus lanes” case [1]. The CJEU decided that allowing London taxis (black cabs) to use bus lanes while prohibiting private hire vehicles (PHVs) from doing so does not appear to involve State aid. While the Eventech judgment leaves a minimum scope for the Court of Appeals to find differently in view of the specific facts of the case and the parts of the file not referred to the CJEU,